Collembola (Arthropoda: Hexapoda) communities in the soil of papaya orchards managed with conventional and integrated production in Espírito Santo, Brazil

Abstract

Collembola have significant influences on soil microorganisms and fertility but information on these ecologically important arthropods is lacking, especially in agricultural and tropical environments. This research was conducted to identify Collembola species present in the soil of papaya orchards in Espírito Santo, Brazil, and to compare the effect of conventional and integrated production on Collembola in this Neotropical environment. Soil samples (4.8 cm diameter, 10 cm deep) were collected in February, May, August and November 2003, from papaya orchards managed with conventional production (including pesticide application based on little or no pest monitoring or consideration of environmental impact) and integrated production (including selective pesticide application only when necessary based on regular pest monitoring) in one experimental site with three treatments (conventional; integrated with drip irrigation; integrated with microsprinkler irrigation) and four commercial orchards (two with conventional and two with integrated production). Berlese-Tullgren funnels were used to extract Collembola from the soil samples. Averaged over the sampling dates, collembolan densities of the orchards ranged from 14023 to 56001 Collembola per m 2 . In the experimental site, the species Willemia brevispina, Folsomina cf. onychiurina, Folsomides cf. centralis, Folsomides parvulus, Cyphoderus cf. similis, and Neelus cf. minimus were more abundant with integrated versus conventional production. However, this difference was not apparent in commercial orchards sampled. Results indicate that relatively high populations and diverse communities of Collembola occur in the soil of papaya orchards in Espírito Santo but no collembolan species were found to be consistent biological indicators of conventional or integrated production. Este trabalho estudou a influência da Produção Convencional em comparação ao de Produção Integrada, sobre os colêmbolos no Estado do Espírito Santo, com ênfase na identificação das espécies e na determinação da densidade dos colêmbolos no solo. A pesquisa foi feita em pomares de mamão nos municípios de Sooretama (pomares experimentais na Fazenda Experimental de Sooretama, INCAPER) e Linhares (pomares comerciais). Na Fazenda Experimental de Sooretama foram realizadas avaliações em um experimento com os sistemas de produção convencional, e o outro com produção integrada. Foram coletadas quatro amostras de solo de cada tratamento (produção convencional com irrigação por aspersão; produção integrada com irrigação por gotejo; produção integrada com irrigação por microaspersão), nos meses de fevereiro, maio, agosto e novembro de 2003. Em Linhares, foram avaliados dois pomares comercias com sistemas de produção convencional e dois com produção integrada, sendo coletadas três amostras por pomar, da mesma forma e nos meses descritos no experimento de Sooretama. Para a extração dos colêmbolos das amostras de solo foram usados os funis de Berlese-Tullgren. A quantidade média dos colêmbolos nos pomares variou de ...

Synthesis of Brazilian Collembola: an update to the species list

“…Up to date, very little is, in fact, known about Brazilian collembolan fauna due to the immensity of the task, despite great past efforts (Culik & Zeppelini, 2003). There have been almost no studies reporting the species composition of collembolan communities at any environment in Brazil and there are few studies reporting Collembola diversity of species in agricultural soils (Culik et al 2002(Culik et al , 2006 and reforestation in mined sand dunes (Zeppelini et al 2009). Clearly there is a great need and many opportunities for additional research on these environmentally important organisms in Brazil.…”

Dicranocentrus heloisae Arlé & Mendonça, 1982 (Collembola: Entomobryidae): first record of the genus in Espírito Santo state, Brazil

“…The collembolan fauna, in the southeastern Brazil, has been investigated by several authors in the last decades (Abrantes 2012). From Espírito Santo state only six species were described (Queiroz and Deharveng 2008;Fernandes and Mendonça 2010;Queiroz and Mendonça 2010;Queiroz and Fernandes 2011;Queiroz and Weiner 2011) and 27 species were recorded (Arlé 1939(Arlé , 1981Thibaud and Palacios-Vargas 1999;Potapov and Culik 2002;Culik et al 2006;Fernandes and Mendonça 2010). The range of this species with distance about 320 km from its type locality ( Figure 3) expands its distribution and configures the first record of this genus for the Espírito Santo state.…”

Collembola community structure under different land management in subtropical Brazil

“…m −2 in fragments of Araucaria forest (Duarte, 2004) and 14,000–56,000 ind. m −2 in soils of papaya orchards (Culik, Martins, & Ventura, 2006). Comparing the values found in the literature is difficult because the methodologies used are quite different among the studies, especially regarding the depth of sampling (Cluzeau et al, 2012).…”